How to remove green hair (direct dye)

Well then, my beautiful faces!
We all knew this day would come...I'm proud I managed a whole 8/9 months with one hair colour (give or take a few minor changes), do you remember my blog post I published back in April, where I dyed my hair green, with the help of my beloved sister. and I SWORE I wouldn't change it for a long time, green was a ridiculously hard colour to remove so i'd keep it for ages... (link HERE)  well I did keep it for a good long while, in retrospect to the lifespan of previous hair colours and styles. But the green/turquoise mermaid epicness that was my hair is no more. I killed it.
...and now I'm ginger. Remember... I tried doing this the year before when I had Galaxy hair and the green just WOULDNT GO. (link to that one here)  well this time I found something that worked.

First of all a background on my hair. It was black, with green highlights, then black to green ombre, then I decided I wanted an all over green so I had it Alpine green, into Apple green, into Spring Green (all dyes are by La Reich Directions dyes) and then as we hit summer I went full mermaid turquoise.

Black to green Ombre

Alpine Green/ Apple Green/ Spring Green

Apple green all over

Multi Colour (I got bored but this faded within two washes)

Turquoise

I couldn't recommend La Riech dyes highly enough. They are long lasting and grab well on damaged hair. Especially the green and blue tones as they are horrific to get out. After doing a lot of research I found new products becoming available on the professional market that were specifically aimed at removing fashion colours and Direct Dyes; Joico Colour Intensity Eraser, Malibu DDL, and Loreal Efassor. 

 

I've not linked any of these as they are easy to find on amazon and ebay but range HUGELY in price. After looking at reviews I decided "screw this" and saved up to go get booked in at my local salon. After a consultation and getting all excited the timing and funds just werent going to be friends and I had to resort back to looking into DIY and risking it myself. And that's where my darling sister stepped in...(again).
After looking at reviews and youtube videos I decided to opt for the Joico Color Eraser as it has the best results and was designed for direct dyes, as was the malibu one but they were so expensive and I ended up finding the Efassor for sale in my local Sallys. (around £6.59 exc VAT) and I ended up getting that instead. Even though it says its for use on oxadised colours, so technically it wouldn't work on a Direct Dye, but the lovely girl in the salon said this was the product she was going to use to remove my green anyway so I figured its worth a shot! All these saches come with the option of different lifts depending on colour, saturation and damage to the hair. My hair was badly damaged but it needed a high lift so rather than mixing with water I chose 20Vol developer but I also mixed in some Color Secret 2 Step hair Strengthening system.  I've linked the salon/trade size pack which is £32.99 but I got a single shot "try me" kit for £2.99 also in sallys)

Before/After Indoors/After in Direct Sunlight

I mixed it together exactly as the instructions say and very carefully, quickly and evenly applied it all over my hair but I avoided my roots as it can still lighten your natural hair, I wrapped it in tinfoil (classy) and sat in the sun for even all over heat. After 20-30min I washed it off and voila!






 As you can see the results were pretty darn epic. I already had a whole pinterest board dedicated to my new colour but the dye I had bought to match came out quite "flat" when I did a test strip so my sister suggested we add another colour to the mix as a kind of toner, to create a multi-tonal effect. I knew that I still had some green residue and I wanted a Copper shade, but i'd need more red tones to cancel out any green still left in my hair so I opted for a slightly redder colour that originally wanted and equally the darker colour we added as a toner was red-based rather than copper based too. We added more of the 6/47 to the Roots then we did to the ends as the roots came up brighter than we wanted as they were still my natural colour. (I had about an inch re-growth).
I noticed my hair felt amazing as I was washing the dye off. I had a few rough feeling ends and a lot of breakages throughout this process due to now having very heavily processed hair, but i've just got to look after it and be nice to it now, and it shouldn't need re-colouring until my roots come through again.

But as you can see the results were epic. So much better than last years disaster which saw me give up on my redheaded dreams and go brown (then green) and although I know i'll miss my mermaid hair on occasion I feel a lot more like "me" as cleche as that may sound, with this vibrant copper/red colour. I will confess though that as soon as my hair is longer and healthier, so probably summer time, I do want it ombred, as my pinterest board is full of images of Lau P from Le Happy.com. But thats another adventure for in a few months time. Until then, if I ever have any money I may invest in some extentions instead! 

XoXo